1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to an arrow rest mountable to an archery bow for supporting an archery arrow with respect to the archery bow and, more particularly, to an electrically activated arrow rest.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Archery bows require an arrow rest to support and hold an archery arrow in a proper drawn or holding position. It is desirable to position the arrow properly on the arrow rest to launch the arrow without contact or interference with the arrow rest, in order to maintain the flight path of the arrow.
Archery arrows are made with fletching including vanes molded of plastic or polymeric materials, which are more accurate than feathers and are weather-resistant. However, such plastic or polymeric vanes cause problems. Unlike feathers that are flexible, the plastic vanes, when contacting an arrow rest during launching of the arrow, further deflect the arrow during launch in an unpredictable manner. In order to solve accuracy problems associated with the use of plastic vanes, one known arrow rest, sometimes referred to as a “shoot through” arrow rest, supports the arrow with a pair of prongs or thin blades, providing a slot through which one of the fletching vanes can pass to eliminate or minimize contact between the fletching vane and the arrow rest. Unfortunately, the vane often contacts the arrow rest, resulting in damage to the fletching vane and/or a reduction in launching accuracy.
Another known arrow rest, sometimes referred to as a “fall away” arrow rest, supports the arrow with prongs or another supporting structure. When launching the arrow, the supporting structure withdraws before the fletching vanes can contact the arrow rest. However, when the launched arrow begins to move with respect to the arrow rest, inertia causes the support structure to move relatively slowly. During this time, the arrow should be supported by the arrow rest. As the arrow accelerates, the arrow rest should move out of the arrow flight path to prevent contact between the fletching and the arrow rest. Therefore, the arrow rest must be activated so that the support structure moves within a narrow time frame, typically only a few milliseconds. Current fall away arrow rests include strings, cables and/or linkages to accomplish this movement, each of which results in an undesirable increased complexity. Further, the current fall away arrow rests are difficult to attach to the archery bow and do not work with every type of archery bow.
It is apparent that there is a need for a simple and reliable arrow rest that can be used with a variety of archery bows.